Visalia Personal Statement

I am an 18-year-old student currently residing in Indiana. I’ve been living here with my family for the past eleven or so years, ever since we moved in 2004 from California, my birthplace. My parents both originate from Central America. My mother is from El Salvador and my father is from Mexico, so I’m a mix of Salvadorian, Mexican, and American. I was homeschooled by my parents for most of my adolescent life, mainly by my mother during my infant years. As I grew up my father took charge of my education from kindergarten to middle school. When it came time for highschool, I decided to attend a public school. My first endeavour in the public education system was with an online school known as INCA(Indiana Connection Academy). I eventually found

I’ve demonstrated unusual academic ability since elementary school. During my time at River Oaks Elementary, an International Baccalaureate school, I enjoyed and excelled in the Gifted and Talented program. My second-grade teacher told my parents at the end of the year that in his opinion I already knew all the material that I would learn in third grade. Therefore, he recommended that I skip the grade entirely. Although my parents didn’t let me skip third grade, I continued to challenge myself. I asked for extra homework and devoured half the books in the library in my spare time. My wonderful teachers let me work at an accelerated pace and gave me higher level problems to keep me interested and enthusiastic about school. Similarly, my eighth-grade Spanish teacher strongly recommended that I skip Spanish II and head straight to Spanish III my freshman year. This time, I was old enough to express my desire to accelerate my learning; I urged my parents to let me skip the class and reassured them that I wouldn’t be too overwhelmed. They trusted my judgement, and I’m so thankful that I made this decision. I borrowed my teacher’s book over the summer and pored over it for an hour every day until I was confident in my abilities. It was intimidating walking into the sophomore- and junior-filled class on that first

My entire family was born in Guadalajara, Mexico. After three and a half years of living there my family decided to seek a better future in The United States. My father would go to the United States back and forth to work and earn money to send to us in Mexico. Eventually my mother was able to get a visa and my brother along with my little sister had an alternate way into the United States. We lived in Dallas Texas and Atlanta Georgia before settling in Howard county Maryland in a very small apartment. Luckily we were doing pretty well with my dad being the only one knowing English at the time. My father was working two jobs and I was getting ready to start kindergarten. I was very excited because the education we would have received in Mexico was nothing compared to the education in Howard County. I was excited for what was to come, but there were disadvantages of knowing only Spanish. Being bullied because of my poor English had an impact on me. I was in completely separate classes learning things that were simple compared to the regular course. I was excluded from certain activities, field trips and assemblies. I was clueless at first though as I slowly learned the language I understood things a lot more.

Coming from a Latino household, I’ve learned that anything is achievable – there are no walls nor boundaries to stop me from reaching my goals. Whenever it came to achieving something in school, I could hear my father’s words “si se puede” – meaning “you can do it” – playing in my head. So long as I believed I could excel and go beyond in my studies, I felt that I could open doors of opportunities for myself.

Since the beginning of my middle school education and throughout high school, I played the flute and performed in Symphonic band concerts in varying venues. Music is not the only amazing quality that I have accomplished. I perform excellent in all team and solo sports. I participated in Varsity track and Football the majority of my high school career. In my spare time, I found it inspiring helping Destiny Church which is located in the Mary Pickford Theatre, in Cathedral City, and The local Boys and Girls Club in Desert Hot Springs Community Center. I speak fluent Spanish, bilingual has its advantages to translate to English beginning learners who seek to improve their English and writing skills. Staying focused and staying on top of my classes is my dedication to my goal at this great academic University establishment, is not only my priority but a great privilege . In my previous years in high school, I have kept my grades up and always questioned if I was slacking and I would challenge myself to be better than I was and I keep pushing myself to exclude any future errors. College and my future career are my main goal, Understanding life has itś setbacks, it is a big step in moving farther forward than taking one step forward and two stepbacks back when things get

I moved to the United States from the Dominican Republic at age 16. I can certainly state that this has been the most difficult time of my life thus far. Besides going through physical, social and cultural changes, I was also facing the divorce of my parents. Although I had been an “A” student in the Dominican Republic, I was doing very poorly in high school as a result of these combined struggles and the fact that I was still learning the language. After struggling for several months, I wrote a letter stating all of my problems and that I did not want to be alive. A week after writing the letter, I decided to give it to my school counselor. I gave it to her because I didn’t want to aggravate or worry my mother and felt that she could do nothing to help me. I believed the counselor was in a position to actually help me with my problems.

I was born on February 14, 1993 in the city of La Vega, Dominican Republic. I came to New York at the age of 10. The fact that my first language is Spanish placed me at a disadvantage from the minute I stepped a foot in the United States since even at the airport I was not able to communicate with the agent. My biggest struggle was school since the class was taught in English only and most of my classmates only spoke English. Despite my efforts to give it my all to learn the language and adapt to the customs of this unfamiliar place, it seemed to be a challenge I would never overcome. Since my parents and close family members mostly spoke Spanish as well, they could not help me, they only encouraged me to study and read a lot so that I would learn the language faster. I wanted to fit in with kids of my age and to understand when

I was born in El Paso, Texas to Mexican immigrant parents who did their best to raise me and my three siblings. Growing up in El Paso I never even saw myself applying to college, but then my dad made a bold choice to start a career in homeland security and that was when we moved to the DFW area. Ever since we moved to DFW every grade in junior high, i was talked to about college: how to get there, how to pay for it, and how to make it a reality. The thought of going to college never even crossed my mind before coming here. Now as a Senior in high school I'am doing everything in my abilities to make my dreams come true, to go to college and graduate to make my parents proud and prove to them that all their sacrifices haven't gone by without

We moved in with a new roommate in the Friendly neighborhood but luckily got to finish the year at Goshin. I started and finished my fifth grade year at Adams elementary. I spent my six grade year at roosevelt middle school that was the year that my uncle moved down from portland and started living with me my mom and our roommate. I finished sixth grade and moved on to seventh grade at roosevelt then halfway through my seventh grade year my mom decided to buy a house across town with my grandma that had just moved down for alaska. My uncle moved in with my grandma and we stayed with them for a little while, while we fixed up the house. Once we had moved in I transferred schools from roosevelt to kelly middle school where I finished my seventh and eighth grade years. I started my freshman year in high school even though I had a trouble reading until I was in fourth grade and was on an IEP till seventh I made it to high school and plan to go

That’s when I knew I had to take control of my life. I began looking for GED programs and came across alternative high schools. I applied to Innovation Diploma Plus High School and went to the school for an interview. The adviser, Mr. Polanco told me I didn’t have the minimum requirements which were 10 credits and 1 regent exam. He told me I had to return to my school and pass my classes and reapply. At this point I felt discouraged, the teachers in my school weren’t willing to help me because of the impression they had of me. A few days later my mom received a call saying I was accepted into Innovation Diploma Plus and I knew this was the clean slate and I can become the person I knew I could be. Mr. Polanco told me that he convinced the principle of the school to take a chance on me although I was missing 1-course credit. I worked super hard to make sure I wasn’t another Spanish girl on the welfare line with a baby and no education in a state that offers education for free. In Innovation Diploma Plus, I received 35 credits in a year and a half. I was attending regular classes, classes after school, I even switched my lunch period for another

I’m truly a fortunate teenager. I didn’t doubt at all that I wanted to come to the United States of America. My initial plan was to do as much as I could during junior year and share my findings back home like an ancient explorer. The big question was, should I stay for senior year? Would you do it? Do you have the courage? Step on my shoes for one second. Step in my mother’s and grandma’s shoes too. If I decided to stay, that implied to major things. Firstly, that graduating from an U.S high school would no longer allow me to go back and study in Mexico right away. If all of a sudden, for any reason, I wanted to quit, I would have lost my time and would have lost awesome moments next to my close friends and family. At the same time, not going to college here couldn’t even be considered. I’ve known since I enrolled in elementary school that I would attend University. I’ve always known that I wanted to be a professional. This meant at least two more years here, two years away from my beloved Mexico City. In my mom’s point of view, since I’m her only child, she probably misses more that anyone. Can you completely fill in the void of a missing Child or a Family member you

Born in July of 1999, I have always been known to have a bright future.I attended Ann Visger Elementary School in River Rouge, Michigan and Strong Middle School in Melvindale Michigan. From there began my high school career at Melvindale High School very nervous. I was placed in many honors classes and was able to excel. I took leadership roles and participated in projects that many freshmen do not try. After ninth grade, I transferred to River Rouge High School, on my first day I was reunited with old friends, yet still wanted to go back to my old school with my friends I created in the last 4 years. After being sadden about my transfering, I decided that you must do with what you are given. So the entire school year I worked to get my titles

My life has changed a lot, I now know more English than before, I now know what What’s up means. I am not an English expert but, I am proud that I am part of this program because it was a key for me to learn English. Even though that there still people who does make fun of my English because I still having the Latino accent I know that with practice I can improve my pronunciation to make it better than ever. As a student I had learned a lot, especially on the English subject. In my last year of the ConnCAP program I had been taking English 1004, the college course that every Uconn freshman student have to take. By taking this course I had learn how to write an essay, new things that I did not know too much about it before. Everyday, I learn a new things that it can be use in my life, even that I sometimes can be mean with other people in this program and I had learn that perfectly. Also, that been mean with other is not right, I had learned a lot of things in this programs, not just as a student but, as a person I have a lot of things to think about it and change some of them. If it was not for the ConnCAP i probably I would not know English at this point of my

I came to America on June 6, 2011. I was 15 years when I got here in America. When I got here, at JFK airport, my uncle picked up me and my mom up from the airport and took us to my grandmother’s house. While there, we had dinner. Then the next day they took us to Manhattan shopping and so we could get familiar with the place. Then a week later I signed up for school. Then I got put into Academy for Health Careers High School. When I started going to school, I was getting high grades and doing really well. Then I fell off when I got into 11th grade. I stopped going to school because I was under a lot of stress. I would keep failing my Regents and I would get depressed and cry. I would say I gave up on everything because the Regents were so hard, it was embarrassing to me. I really wanted to

My experience is rather unique compared to the typical American teenager. I was born in the United States, but raised on the Portuguese islands known as the Azores. I graduated from the local high school in Sao Jorge, while technically having dual citizenship. Being raised on an island, people see my life as living in paradise. However, they do not know the struggles I have gone through, and missed out on many experiences that people in the U.S. take for granted. Being born in the United States and taken to Portugal as a young child by my parents, I never really had the opportunity to do what I really wanted to do: to choose my own path, to live by my own expectations, and have my own goals. Last year, I realized the high school on the island didn’t meet my expectations.